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Arsenal MUST add nasty to the nice or keep losing

I have always been an advocate of fair play in football and Arsene Wenger has certainly tried to make his Arsenal team stick to those principles in recent years. More and more though, we hear that Arsenal have lost a key factor that we had when winning titles in the years up to an including the amazing invincibles season.

A lot of pundits have claimed that the loss of and failure to replace combative players like Vieira and Keown has made Arsenal a soft touch. I am not so sure, but when we get three players sent off in two games without committing many fouls and actually being on the receiving end, I have to question the point of playing fair.

Also, you can bet that all teams that are due to play Arsenal in the coming weeks and months will try to bully us and get under our skin. So we need to be ready and to meet fire with fire. If that means picking up a few more yellow cards than usual, so be it.

If I am sick of the rough treatment the Arsenal team gets, how much more sick of it must the players be? Arsene Wenger needs to get his team to add some nasty to their passing game and I would start with bringing Flamini back to face the spuds. What do you think Gooners?

This is in response to the fallout of the match vs Chelsea and to an extent I agree but let me clarify my view.

Arsenal are for lack of a better phrase are the gentleman’s club of English football. Aesthetically pleasing and scintillating to watch, capable of outfootballing most anyone if given the space to operate.

The problem arises when Arsenal aren’t given the space to operate , when teams decided to press high and hard up the pitch or defend deeply to cut off space. JChelsea is capable of both and it is of no surprise that we’ve yet to beat Chelsea managed under Mourinho in any competitive fixture.

If you take a look at he make-up of Chelsea they have a team similar albeit inferior to successful Arsenal teams of the past. Tough tackling physically imposing players mixe with technically sound workmen none shy to the tackle.

Since Mourinho has returned we’ve yet to score vs Chelsea and this is no coincidence. At Stamford Bridge they press us high up the pitch hoping to hit us in transition and we’ve not responded. Before we even add the nasty to our game we need to tactically examine our weaknesses and how Chelsea exploit them.

Chelsea do not press high up the pitch why do you think people hate them for parking 3 buses every time they play a “big” game? No teams in the prem press high up the pitch anymore you need to watch other leagues/teams like barca, bayern, dortmund , Atleti etc to see what high pressing looks like

Mourinho generally parks the bus AWAY to big teams or v teams he respects at home. The last 3 meetings at Stamford bridge have seen Chelsea press us hard and attack in transition. The 6 – 0 and previous 2 – 0 saw us give p goals from the turnover of possession, unless you’ve forgotten those beatings already.

This match actually saw Chelsea play a high line, stop repeating the general fodder everyone spouts and watch te match

I like that Gabriel is a physical CB that isn’t afraid of confrontation, and I like that Koscileny will take a beating and not react like a baby. Gabriel was naive, but he’s still young and will learn. I’m not angry at him, Mike Dean is the one to blame.

Giroud is bigger and stronger than Costa. Not very aggressive, is he? Doesnt wind defenders up or bully them, despite being bigger than most of them. Though Giroud still loses his cool and gets sent off every so often, like QPR last year.

The former Arsenal defender Keown gave his advice on how he would look to stop Diego Costa on the pitch.

“I’d try to overpower him and then give him a taste of his own medicine by reacting like he does. I’d look for the help of the referee: if you fall over, so will I. He’d have to know that he couldn’t trust me either. I’d tread the line carefully — whatever happens, I’m staying on the pitch.

I keep having this vision of Gabriel intervening and trying to prevent Kos from further harassment by Costa. Then he is being lectured by Dean who is pointing and waving his finger toward the touchline, presumably warning that he could get sent off. Now I am not certain but I could hazard a guess that Dean neither speaks Portugese or Spanish and since Cazorla was not there to help, what use was his lecture. What happened afterwards was an embarrassment for sport and in particular for football. Do we know what Costa said to provoke Gabriel’s non aggressive reaction. Dean couldn’t wait to wave his little red card. He should face at the very least a long suspension. Enough is enough.